With that in mind, the team at DailyFaceoff asked the question: who is the BEST player you would be willing to trade, straight up, for Connor Bedard? The goal wasn't to start trade rumors but to evaluate just how high Bedard's value is right now.
Here are the four names that emerged from this discussion by Matt Larkin, Nick Alberga, Mike McKenna, and Steven Ellis: Nikita Kucherov, Tim Stutzle, Sidney Crosby, and David Pastrnak.
In the end, it's certain that the team that gets the chance to land Bedard wouldn't accept any of the players mentioned above. What Bedard could accomplish in the coming years is worth much more than these excellent players, who are, however, aging (except for Stutzle). It would take a lot more to hope to acquire the young prodigy via a trade.
It would be interesting to do the same exercise for the Canadiens. Would you be willing to give up, as the base of a trade, Cole Caufield, Kaiden Guhle, or even Nick Suzuki? For a Connor Bedard who, as the four journalists mentioned earlier remind us, will quickly become one of the best players in the league? I would definitely do it.
Going back further, would you have traded Carey Price when he was at the top of his game for Bedard? Keep in mind that the goalie was considered one of the top three hockey players in the world when he won his Hart and Vezina trophies. In 2015, during that dream season, he was already 28 years old and advancing in age. Don't factor in his contract for this decision!
POLL | ||
Would you have traded 2015 Carey Price for Bedard? | ||
Yes | 680 | 53.2 % |
No | 598 | 46.8 % |
List of polls |